In one exemplary prior art template processing system, it is known to provide a variety of template styles of low resolution to a customer on their home computer or a photo kiosk, for example. The templates have pre-existing images and/or text thereon with one or more open fields for the addition of customer image and/or text data therein for customizing the template into a finished print. Customized holiday greeting cards made this way have become popular in recent years. An example of this type of prior art template processing system is illustrated in FIG. 1 where a customer selects a low resolution template “x” indicated by reference numeral 10. A pre-existing image field 12 includes a star and a pre-existing text field 14 includes the words “Happy Holidays.” An open text field 1 labeled 16 is filled in by the customer and in this example, is filled with the words, “The Smith Family.” An open image field labeled 18 is also filled by the customer by pasting or otherwise attaching a digital image therein, in this example a picture of the family. Once the template 10 has been filled out, the customer sends the order to the photofinisher over the internet or at a kiosk, for example. The order is in the form of a data file containing the template number and the customer-specified text and image data. The photofinisher accesses a high resolution file of the specified template and populates the open text and image fields thereof with the data file transmitted by the customer. The photofinisher may then print and ship or otherwise make the order available to the customer.
While the foregoing prior art template image processing system is adequate for its purpose, it is lacking in the ability to allow the customer to make any modifications they desire. For example, a customer may wish to add further text and images to the template at various locations and orientations. Present day template processing systems cannot accept any modifications beyond the pre-existing image and data fields in their specified locations on the template.
It would therefore be desirable from a customer satisfaction standpoint to provide a template processing system which allows a customer to make virtually unlimited image and text modifications thereto while also keeping the transmitted data file size as small as possible.